Affordable Riverfront Housing Coming to GR

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.- In January of 2014, The Woda Group out of Ohio is expected to break ground on a new affordable living complex at the former Ryder site at the corner of Front Avenue and Tenth Street, according to Grand Rapids Planning Director, Suzanne Shulz.

“It’s a combination of apartments and townhouses, ranging from two to three stories for the entire site.” Schulz added.

While it will sit in a very industrial area on the west side of the Grand River, Schulz said that when the city did the master zoning plan in 2002, it led to a complete new zoning ordinance in 2007. At that time, the city changed all zoned districts, envisioning “mixed use neighborhoods” that would include industrial along with residential, offices and commercial retail.

“When we rezoned the city, 40 percent of what we had zoned industrial was changed to mix use.” she added.

GrandView Place will be one and two bedroom units, include a large community gathering space and have a 25 foot green space and walkway along the flood wall. Eighty of the units will be subsidized while 13 will be market value, Schulz said. Thirty units will be dedicated to veteran housing, as well.

“There’s a couple of different layers to this; one is the Fair Housing Laws, that you really can’t judge who lives where by their income, so we have to be cognizant of that, but also this range of incomes, in any of our neighborhoods we love to see a mix of incomes because it really balances out everything.” Schulz stated.

The anticipated ground breaking date is set for January of 2014, Schulz said. Managing the site, once it’s built will be KMG Prestige out of Mt. Pleasant.